This invention relates to an apparatus for dispensing single homogeneous units upon rotation and relates more particularly to uses for dispensing single homogeneous unitized medicines, by way of example pills and capsules, either in drug stores, pharmacies or for use by individuals. This invention relates to an apparatus for dispensing a single pill or capsule one at a time from a container in one embodiment.
The prior art such as Soviet patent 1,060,404 issued to Voron Poly has used a closed auger system for attempting to channelize the medications into a multiple staged augered channel, but this is not useful because it induces grinding of the surfaces of the single homogeneous units. The problem with damage to unitized medications and other unitized materials for being dispensed is that they are made defective by the time they are finally dispensed. Further, in the chamber the units rub against each other during multiple rotations and they create abrasion or wearing of the surfaces just from multiple rotations within the auger system itself. Further, the internal auger's screw thread, blades or spirals all cause extensive damage to medication and pills or other sensitive single homogeneous unitized materials. Also, as these augers were very slow and expensive, they caused significant assembly problems in the production and filling of the containers.
The U.S. Pat. No. issued to Anderson 2,665,796 is the auger type patent also and while it is fine for conveying products which are to be consumed like burned coal, the auger has a tendency to grind, grate and do significant damage to single homogeneous units and in the case of medication has a tendency to reduce the dosage level and efficacy by scraping and eroding the surface of the pills thereby reducing the unit medication dosage to be dispensed or where it would be intended to be absorbed into the body. Also by taking a coating off the unitized medications it may change whether the medication can be taken orally, etc. Also, such patents as U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,502 issued to Gubitose, et al, for metering and dispensing abrasive materials was not concerned with the problem associated with abrasiveness and multiple rotations of the product on itself. Clearly this patent would not lend itself to the separation of unitized homogeneous units on a one at a time basis, but is simply another form of an auger.
Further attempts at dispensing unitized homogeneous units from such apparatus as "gun belt" cartridges, clips, and special carrying trays and cups all have had problems with contamination from one item to the next to be dispensed and they were slow speed and had a high cost of production. They further suffered from loading difficulties, packaging complexities and space inefficiencies in this type production equipment. The cartridge type approach was used in U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,358 issued to Johnson, et al, but it was extremely labor insensitive for the pharmacist to put pills into separate cartridges and then manually arrange these on a shelf for the dispensing of the pills. This type machine was of a prior art pill counting machine in reality. The problem with this prior art is that by the time pharmacist took the time to load cartridges he could have filled the prescription. Save and except for the automatic counting, they achieved little or no advantage from manual dispensing.
Further prior art such as Haigler, U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,437, has attempted to use separating devices such as vibrating devices for separating and feeding spaced and counted pills to a chute for their dispensing. Clearly the problem associated where vibration is utilized is the bridging effect of the unitized homogeneous units being dispensed. This bridging effect sets up a "Roman Arch" and jams the dispensing of the items. Also, in the case of medications it creates the problem of the pills being vibrated against themselves and the sides of container which produces medication damage. Also, devices such as vibrating equipment are very inefficient with space and have been known to create dust and are very slow and are not amenable to small containers for use in hospitals or other locations for dispensing one at a time single homogeneous units.
Further, there have been dispensing machines which were specialized for only one shape of single homogeneous units such as a pills which are substantially in the shape of a disk. Such art as U.S. Pat. No. 3,682,352 issued to Roast is a good example of a specialized device in the prior art aimed at a single type and shape of medication or single homogeneous units and cannot be applied across the spectrum of homogeneous units to be dispensed such as capsules or other different shapes of pills.
Further, other prior art such as U.S. Pat. No. 792,918 issued to Olendorf is associated with a pill counting machine which provides a specialized notch or container for receiving a standard size pill. However, the drawback to this invention is that it did not provide for dispensing numerous shapes or kinds of tablets but only a single disk type, without a complete change of the member for receiving the pill. Also, this device was aimed primarily at counting medications.